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1923.55.20

Figurative brass weight for weighing gold, representing a stool.

1923.55.20

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

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Collection type
Object
Description
Figurative brass weight for weighing gold, representing a stool.
Geographical reference
Ghana
Africa > Western Africa > Ghana
Ashanti
Cultural groups
Asante
Person
Field collector Mr Macan
PRM source Reginald Walter Macan
Date / Period
Date made: 1400-1720, uncertain
Date collected
before end 1923
Acquisition information
Donated: 1923
Materials and processes
Material Brass Metal, Process Lost Wax Cast
Dimensions
Length: max 28 mm, Height: max 16 mm, Weight 11 g
Object numbers
Accession number: 1923.55.20
Research and responses

This weight was one of 97 studied by Ryan Brown, an MSc student at Cranfield University, between 2015-2016. Ryan used HH-XRF analysis to determine that the gold weights matched the composition of contemporary Portuguese brasses thus corroborating the literature that identifies Portugal as the source of Akan copper alloys. He also found that across the five centuries of gold weight production their composition did not greatly vary and it is therefore difficult to infer any datable information. The title of his Master’s thesis was “Non-Destructive Compositional Analysis of Akan Copper-Alloy Goldweights from Ghana, in the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford: Characterisation and Provenance” and a copy can be found in RDF under 1938.18.

Search terms: Measurement, Furniture Dwelling, Gold Weight, Stool